Some residents living on Oakwood Drive, which has about nine luxury homes just west of the academy's Warrensville Center property, are worried about noise, lights, traffic and odors the school campus might generate.

Bettina Katz told the commission that she and her family paid more than $300,000 for their Oakwood home about 25 years ago. Since then, they have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars more in the house, which has won awards and been featured in national publications.

Now, Katz said, her property would overlook a loading dock and access road to the school.

"My life as a resident on the street will be untenable," Katz told the commission.

Residents also bristled about the academy's offer to sell them land abutting their properties. The offer, supposedly mandated by a 1950 agreement between Oakwood Club and homeowners, would provide each homeowner a 160-foot-deep piece of land for $1 a square foot.

"I feel like I'm being extorted to invest more in a property that is worth significantly less."

The commission asked the academy to submit alternative plans that would place the new school building farther away from Oakwood homes.

Travis Mathews - senior group leader with Environmental Design Group, an Akron firm working on the project - said the academy would consider plan adjustments.

"I think fundamentally, this is the spirit of the plan the academy wants for this sight," said Travis Mathews.

Bursting enrollment

An overhead view of the proposed new Hebrew Academy of Cleveland Campus on Warrensville Center Road. Ronald Kluchin Architects Inc.

Hebrew Academy's new Warrensville Center campus would consist of a new 134,000-square-foot building on 68 acres, although the school owns a total of 92 acres there.

The school would have separate wings for early childhood, elementary and junior-high levels, according to preliminary plans submitted to the city. Hebrew Academy also wants to convert the country club's former golf clubhouse, which is about a century old, into a high school.

Plans also show a baseball diamond, two or three multipurpose fields, three playgrounds, walking trails, rain gardens and two storm water ponds with fountains.

Ron Kluchin, a Beachwood architect designing the project, said the academy purchased the Oakwood Club property in April from First Interstate Properties Ltd., a Lyndhurst firm that manages Legacy Village, among other properties.

Kluchin said academy enrollment is "bursting at the seams." On South Taylor, the school has converted offices into classrooms and storage rooms into offices, and Yeshiva High School for boys in Lyndhurst needs renovation and expansion.

Eli Dessler, academy treasurer, said families from all over the United States and Canada move to Cleveland Heights because of the academy. He said enrollment is close to 1,000.

Kluchin said the Warrensville Center site presents challenges. It contains two active natural gas wells, and city law prohibits development within a 3,300-foot radius of the wells. But Mathews said those wells are being capped and abandoned.

Also, the former golf course property is hilly with little flat land, and includes a 20-foot drop from Warrensville Center to the middle of the site. Mathews said the property also contains federally protected wetlands.

Mathews said the building "sited itself" due to the topographical limitations. The school would stand in the center of the property, toward Oakwood Drive but 298 feet from the nearest residence.

An exclusive neighborhood

Scott Chaikin, representative of the Oakwood homeowners association, said residents gladly welcome the academy as a neighbor. He said the Oakwood development was built in cooperation with the Oakwood Club, the first major Jewish organization in Cleveland Heights, although the neighborhood has diversified since then.

Chaikin said Oakwood residents have invested significantly in their homes and are concerned about a new school building 60 feet from their property lines and a service road 10 feet away. The academy would install a landscape buffer but some of it would lie on homeowners' properties, he said.

Chaikin said the academy should provide alternatives for the placement of the new school building so that it's closer to Warrensville Center.

Ivan Soclof, chairman of the academy's Building Committee, said the 1950 agreement between the country club and homeowners established the buffer. Under the agreement, if Oakwood residents choose not to buy additional land, future development would have to stay 60 feet from their property lines.

Soclof was offended that Katz used the word "extortion" when describing the offer of more land to residents.

"Extortion is a fierce word for an institution that wants to be beneficial to its own constituency and wants to be a good neighbor and maintain property value in the Oakwood community," Soclof said.

Lisa Friedman said her family lives in University Heights but is looking for a house in Cleveland Heights. She said her family moved here from St. Louis due to the academy.

"It's a big draw (nationwide) for people who are seeking an excellent education for their children," Friedman said.

On Friday, Rabbi Simcha Dessler, educational director of the academy, said scores of families have relocated to Greater Cleveland because of the academy since the school opened in 1946.

"The academy will continue to be a wonderful neighbor for the community," Dessler said.